The highlight of any trip into the mountains is the peaceful and remote dusks and dawns. On the trip to Frenchmans Cap, in the Franklin Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, we had two out of our three nights at the Lake Vera hut but the middle night was on a ridgeline near Sharland Peak between Barron Pass and Lake Tahune. As I mentioned in a previous post I spotted a composition during the afternoon which I was very keen to shoot at sunrise, and this is the result:

Sunrise, Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park

…and for comparison, the scene as it looked during the previous afternoon:

The same scene during daylight hours

The ridge also provided a great skyline view of Frenchmans Cap itself, another reason for preferring to camp here than at the hut. The evening was very clear, so we were denied a fiery sunset but instead managed some nice silhouettes and a little bit of colour.

Dusk silhouette, Frenchmans Cap Tasmania

There was a nice pink afterglow which bathed the surrounding landscape and the jagged rock of the ridge made for great photo ops!

Dusk afterglow, Franklin Gordon Wild Rivers National Park

Dusk afterglow, Franklin Gordon Wild Rivers National Park

And what would a night in the mountains be without a few shots of the night sky? To my surprise it seemed like there was an incredibly faint aurora happening. In the first shot below (which was only a test shot) there was a definite purple glow, but by the time I recomposed to include the Frenchmans Cap skyline the glow had dropped off, and didnt come back unfortunately. A Frenchmans Cap aurora shot would have been a massive bonus 🙂

Night sky, with aurora glow. Franklin Gordon Wild Rivers National Park

Frenchmans Cap and Sharland Peak, with remnant aurora glow. Missed it by… that much!

Click on the following links for Part I and Part II of the trip notes.